# Track an Order

Following what is on order, receiving it in stages, and closing the ones that will never come.

A purchase order is open until it is received in full or closed. Between those, it is a promise you are relying on.

## Track it

![The Purchase Orders list showing each order's status, total amount, whether it has been billed and its expected date, against UK suppliers.](https://www.sorviai.com/help/inventory/purchase-orders/purchase-orders-list.png)

*Sort by Expected Date and the orders you should be chasing come to the top.*

| Column | What it is telling you |
| --- | --- |
| Status | Draft means nothing is expected. Issued means the quantity is on order |
| Expected Date | What the vendor's lead time promised. Past it, and somebody should be ringing them |
| Billed | Whether their invoice has arrived. Separate from whether the goods have |

## Receiving in stages

One purchase order can be received several times. Ordering a hundred and receiving sixty leaves forty still on order against the same document, which is what tells you the vendor still owes you.

- **Open the order when a delivery arrives**

  Create a purchase receive from it. The record shows what has already been received.

  ![A purchase order record showing its number, status, vendor, ordered lines and totals, with an activity panel recording the receives raised against it.](https://www.sorviai.com/help/inventory/purchase-orders/purchase-order-detail.png)
- **Record what actually came**

  Not what was ordered. The balance stays on order.
- **Repeat as further deliveries land**

  The order closes itself when the last of it is received.

> **Warning:**
>
> **Close the ones that will never arrive**
>
> An order left issued for goods the vendor is not sending keeps the units in your expected figure indefinitely, and every reorder decision that reads "on order" is then wrong by that much.

> **Tip:**
>
> **Filter to issued and past their expected date, weekly**
>
> It is a short list, and every row on it is either a vendor to chase or a receive nobody recorded.